Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

[Slamz]

Anyone else watching this? Whaddya think?

I really wasn't impressed by the first two episodes. They were "okay". Third episode, I thought, picked things up a little better.

I think the main problem I'm having is that the characters are all "too".... Agents of SHIELD is supposed to be ordinary humans dealing with a world that's turning superhero but especially for the first two episodes I really wasn't sure if the agents were supposed to be people with minor superhero talents or not. Super scientists... super spies... super hacker... Agent Coulson is the only one among them that actually seems like a normal person [and I gather there is something fishy going on with him as well].

Like the crew of Serenity were clearly just regular people. They weren't even especially good at what they did.

Agents of SHIELD is like cream of the crop to the point that they might as well just be superheroes themselves and I don't find myself getting that into their characters. Sorry I can't relate to super scientists and Jason Bourne, I guess?


I hear they got approved for a full season, though, so I guess we'll see. Maybe it'll feel better once some overarching plot sets in but so far the characters and interaction is pretty far from Whedon standards [and I realize Whedon is not writing this but I thought he'd have a stronger hand in it].

[strife]

I've only watched the first episode and plan on at least trying the others when I'm bored... but I wasn't impressed with the first episode. I think it's too corny... I also wasn't real happy that their first episode they stole the Ironman 3 story for their first "hero/villain/whatever".

I didn't enjoy the first episode at all and was really disappointed, but being that it's marvel I'll give it as many chances as possible to be good..

[Slamz]

Oh, Hulu.com (the free one) will apparently be keeping the latest 5 episodes on tap.

[Breand]

It's not very good right now but I think they will "figure it out" pretty soon. Whedon has a history of his shows starting out weak (Firefly being an exception) and getting better as time goes on. I also generally HATE procedurals as well so I'm just not really interested in shows that are 45 minutes of a complete story and hopefully they will get some arcs going sooner rather than later.

[strife]

Oh, Hulu.com (the free one) will apparently be keeping the latest 5 episodes on tap.

Yea, I have Comcast and they pretty much store the entire current season of shows.

On another note, I think the Arrow started coming back on, it's another bad super hero show that I force myself to watch cause it's based(loosely) on a comic book.

[Snowreap]

I've been watching, and don't have any plans to stop (yet). so far it feels like Agent Coulson is really carrying the show, but that may simply be because we have the most interest in him because his character is already well developed. we'll see how it goes.

I've also been watching The Blacklist and the first season of White Collar. The Blacklist looks like it has a lot of potential, and I think it has better writing than Agents of SHIELD. White Collar is entertaining as long as you don't think too hard about it.

-ken

[Vanraw]

Yea agree, that its not great now, but there is some character development that could be interesting. I recall the first season of Buffy wasn't very good either.

It will be interesting if they meet up with the hulk, or iron man or etc.

The cliff hanger of the guy in the gravity element might be interesting as well.

[strife]

I've seen some of the interviews and they seem to shy away from meeting any of the avengers or anything. They didn't rule it out but basically said don't hold your breath.

[Moristans]

Like the crew of Serenity were clearly just regular people. They weren't even especially good at what they did.

Agents of SHIELD is like cream of the crop to the point that they might as well just be superheroes themselves and I don't find myself getting that into their characters. Sorry I can't relate to super scientists and Jason Bourne, I guess?

Yeah, kinda, considering it the premise of the show, but I wouldn't expect an outfit like SHIELD to have to make due with less than the cream of the crop. Even if we are dealing with flawed characters, I would expect them to be very good at what they do. Maybe having Buffy-like demon killing powers would be a bit too far on one extreme, but I wouldn't expect SHIELD to try to muddle through with the Serenity crew either.

Maybe it is because of the way the characters are written that the show doesn't seem to get the most out of it's premise, but I feel like it's more like the situations that the characters have been put in. I would actually hate to see a "Marvel Superhero of the Week" to show that SHIELD are just humans. I think if we see that, it will be a sign that the show's going downhill and they need to do something to save it. At the same time, they've made a pretty strong connection to the "Battle of New York". What's missing to me is anything in the show that reflects a world where New York was almost destroyed by an psychotic Norse God teaming up with aliens who open up a wormhole from another dimension to really highlight the fact that, despite how good SHIELD operatives are, they really are just normal Human Beings.

It took me awhile to get into Buffy but I was able to get into Firefly right off the bat. What made both of those shows so great, though, was Whedon's very adept use of anachronism to develop stories and characters. The whole premise of each show was based on anachronism and Whedon really did get a lot out of it.

[Jakensama]

Like the crew of Serenity were clearly just regular people.

Yup, genius doctor, surgically altered telepath, preacher who is clearly some elite ex assassin, high class call girl, savant mechanic that can repair spaceships with no real training.. just the types of people you meet on the street every day!

Seriously though, SHIELD is a top secret multinational agency that deals with superhumans, I would think they kinda hire above average employees. I mean Black Widow is one of their field agents in this continuity.

[Moristans]

Like the crew of Serenity were clearly just regular people.

Yup, genius doctor, surgically altered telepath, preacher who is clearly some elite ex assassin, high class call girl, savant mechanic that can repair spaceships with no real training.. just the types of people you meet on the street every day!

Hah!

Considering they're civilization was also capable of interstellar travel, though, it's not a huge leap to think they do represent normal for their time and place. That was the best part of the show though. Their interactions really didn't make them seem all that out of the ordinary.

The SHIELD agents, on the other hand, really do seem like super heroes in world where they are supposed to be the average beings.

Seriously though, SHIELD is a top secret multinational agency that deals with superhumans, I would think they kinda hire above average employees. I mean Black Widow is one of their field agents in this continuity.

Yup, now, all we need are situations that involve SHIELD dealing with real superhumans so that we know, like Black Widow, we're just dealing with super-hot humans with better than average Ninja skills.

[Skelas]

I'm mildly disappointed, i'd like to see AIM and HYDRA as adversaries, I need a little more fantastical if they are going to place them in the marvel universe. It doesn't have to be superheroes, but I could see some epic shit duking it out with AIM.

[Slamz]

Incidentally, one thing that bothered me with episode 3:

What, exactly, did any of that have to do with anything about the premise of the show?

Unless I missed something, nothing about the gravity generator was alien. Some smart guy figured out how to make it, figured out what element he needed for it, found that element by digging a whole lot of mines around good old earth, then brought in another smart guy to figure out how to perfect it.

I mean other than the fact that he was a bad guy, it could have been a project by the European Union or NASA or Dupont or something. It could have just as easily happened pre-Thor.


I guess the premise is that SHIELD is not specifically anti-alien but really just a watchdog for dangerously advanced technology, even if it's just developed by some engineers at Exxon. They are the Men In Black who show up and wreck your shit if you get too outta hand by like inventing an antimatter bomb or a light bulb that's just a bit too good.

Still, I thought it was odd that it had no apparent connection to superheroes or aliens of any sort and would have worked just as well in the X-Files universe. (Whereas the tech in episodes 1 and 2 was based on alien technology.)

[strife]

yea, seems like 3 episodes in they've already lost all their good episode ideas... wait, they haven't had a good one yet. This show is so cheesy and overacted.

[Moristans]

I mean other than the fact that he was a bad guy, it could have been a project by the European Union or NASA or Dupont or something. It could have just as easily happened pre-Thor.

Yup. I haven't had a chance to see too many movies but wasn't the first episode based on the super-soldier serum from Iron Man?

Anyway, yeah. It seemed more like a plot out of James Bond. We did learn some things. Hot but surly super hacker babe is in it for the long haul. Coulson is rusty but still a pretty good field operative. Hot but surly Asian babe is some kind of a badass waiting for some real action. So, maybe that's it. These bad guys are just the warm up and the real enemy is still out there?

[Breand]

I think you guys are looking for something that broadcast television is not. This is a cop show. Really. It's CSI with higher tech. It had to be sold that way to get aired. Because that's what sells to the proles of our country that are so out of touch that they still watch television live on the major networks because that's how they STILL make bank. (Because Nielsen is a dinosaur but the networks keep feeding the beast). And I think the problem with that is Joss Whedon was given a lot of leeway and as a result he hired his family to write the show and they are not seasoned procedural writers so the show is a bit of a mess right now.

Now, they can change that as time goes on and they get more experience and hire better writers, but this is a tried and true template of successful television: a crime solving show that spends 42 minutes telling a complete story so that anyone can jump in and watch at any time, which is great for syndication.

They have to work within the constraints of broadcast television so the real Marvel fans are getting something we didn't want...but mainstream America will gobble up, although even they expect better writing.

On top of that I think they are also under a very strict rule to not mess with the Golden Goose, which is the multi billion dollar Marvel movie franchise, particularly the Avengers. So they will be very limited in what they can do so it doesn't affect the mythos of the movie universe.

[Moristans]

I suppose, in which case, I won't be watching it for too much longer if what we've seen is going to make up the bulk of the content. I don't watch too much T.V. to begin with. I don't actually have a problem with police procedurals, but that's not why I'm watching Agents of SHIELD, just to see another CSI.

I get that they don't want to mess with formulaic T.V., or the Marvel Universe, and that they might have bad writers, but they've already set the stage by bringing up the Battle of New York. So far, the world they occupy has just seems a bit too normal considering what happened to the largest city in the United States.

Even if they stick to the procedural formula and simply spend 42 minutes of each episode tracking down reverse-engineered alien weapons, it would make a lot more sense and give me a reason to tune in.

[Breand]

I'm hoping we get a Fringe route. Fringe was very formulaic (and boring) it's 1st season but got pretty darn awesome from the 2nd on. However, it actually needed bad ratings to do so...once it became something America didn't want and focused on more of niche audience, it got much better.

[Jakensama]

And then it did stupid time travel stuff which fundamentally made most of the first few seasons somewhat irrelevant, which seems to be a recurring theme with old JJ.

[Vllad]

hmm,

I thought Fringe started well but ended horribly. Fringe originally was the new X-files but with a horrible long term story idea. Time travel never ends well.

Plus the typical JJ bad guy who lies constantly and repeatedly convinces the good guys to make the same mistakes over and over again.

[Jakensama]

I didn't mind the alternate universe really, but after season 3 or 4 when they did the time wipe i was done.